Driven women spark girls to think of car careers

A fleet of Aston Martin arrived at Tile Hill Wood School in Coventry as part of an event to interest girls in working in the car business or other male-orientated careers

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By Tom Beasley

A fleet of nine Aston Martin supercars with female drivers at the wheel zoomed into a Coventry girls’ school as part of a campaign to raise awareness of the variety of jobs available to women.

The event took place at Tile Hill Wood School & Language College, in Nutbrook Avenue, Tile Hill, this week.

It was organised by the Inspiring Women campaign, which was founded by Miriam González Durántez, partner in a major international law firm and also wife of Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.

Mrs Durántez spoke to a group of more than 100 pupils at the school, introducing an opportunity for networking with strong female role models from Aston Martin, which has its headquarters in Gaydon, Warwickshire.

She encouraged the girls present, all aged 12 to 15, not to “limit their dreams” and to work hard towards achieving a job in any profession in which they want to work – even if that was in an area like cars or engineering traditionally associated with men.

Sam Tasker, assistant headteacher at Tile Hill Wood, said: “The girls found Miriam really inspirational and a few of them even wanted her autograph.

“The fact that they had access to so many inspirational women means they came away really upbeat because it let them ask what they wanted.

“They were inspired to do whatever they wanted to do.”

The Inspiring Women campaign, co-ordinated by Inspiring the Future, has recruited 9,500 volunteers from various industries and backgrounds to visit schools in their local area for free.

“I think that it is important to get the women back to the schools,” said Mrs Durántez. “Events like these are great to generate some publicity so that we get as many women to volunteer and schools to use this network.”

Carol Glover, campaigns and communications manager for the Inspiring the Future organisation, said: “It’s about meeting people face to face and talking about how to get into different jobs and careers.

“A lot of kids might not have personal connections, so we’re trying to help kids who might never have met an architect or a plumber.”

Since the Inspiring Women programme was launched in 2012, 85 per cent of state secondary schools have signed up so their pupils can benefit from receiving visits from inspiring female volunteers.